Forward March Hare
Forward March Hare is a 1953 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Downs Title The title combines the phrases "Forward march," and "March hare." Plot The mailman has delivered a letter to "B. Bonny" (Bertram Bonny), but when the truck pulls out, the exhaust from the tailpipe blows the letter out of the mailbox. It drifts down into Bugs Bunny's hole. Bugs, in the middle of his morning workout, including a brief workout of his ears, eventually sees the letter and assumes it's for him. On reading the letter, he is shocked: "Holy cats, I've been drafted!" Bugs' going through the Army induction center only causes some small reactions, with the exception being the man checking each person's X-Ray, who immediately diagnoses himself as "overworked" when seeing Bugs' X-ray. He passes the eye exam with flying colors from the first letter right down to the microscopic "Reg. U.S. Pat. Off." disclaimer at the bottom of the chart. Once in the army, though, he quickly causes problems. His shoes are too big, so when his Sergeant calls for the men lined up to about face, Bugs accidentally knocks the rest of the line over like bowling pins. The Sergeant calls Bugs forward, where Bugs introduces himself as "Private Bugs Bunny, reporting as ordered, your majesty!" The Sergeant doesn't believe it's really Bugs, and dryly refers to himself as "Sergeant Porky Pig." However, his Colonel, referring to himself as "Colonel Putty Tat", tells the Sergeant that "General Tweety Pie was asking about you, Sergeant." On inspecting Bugs, Bugs quickly knocks the Colonel over with his large shoes. Bugs and his commanding officer - now noticeably demoted to Sergeant from Sergeant First Class - take a long hike that sees both of them crawling back to their bunk (at "Camp Ono") in the middle of the night. Bugs finally lies down in his bunk, but is woken by Reveille. Bugs, intending to "moider that bugler," runs with a baseball bat and smashes the record player to bits. He then takes a bath, using the Colonel's helmet as his bathtub! When the Sergeant notices this, he throws Bugs out and runs off with the helmet full of soapy water, only to run into the Colonel. Now demoted to Corporal rank, Bugs' officer has Bugs 'dress' the chickens for dinner, though Bugs has them all dressed in tuxedos. "Where are they eatin'?" Bugs then tries nailing a calendar to the wall above his bunk using a large ammunition shell, causing the neighboring soldiers to flee. The Corporal runs up just in time to almost get hit with the shell when it goes off, but the shell drives a hole clean through the Colonel's helmet while the Colonel is wearing it! Now reduced in rank to Private, Bugs' former commanding officer asks the bunny what he's got against him. He finally realizes that "We've inducted a rabbit!" and runs off to find the Colonel. When told by the Colonel, whom Bugs calls "General, sir," that he can't be part of the armed forces, Bugs asks what a patriotic rabbit can do. The Colonel tells Bugs there is something he can do. Bugs then tests ammunition shells similar to the one he accidentally fired by striking the top with a mallet and marking them as 'DUD' when they don't explode. Bugs then says, "And just think! In thirty years, I can retire!" Availability * VHS - The Looney Tunes Video Show, Volume 5 * VHS - Classic Collection (WHSmith Exclusive Video) (United Kingdom only) * VHS - Stars of Space Jam: Bugs Bunny * DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, Disc 1 * DVD - Stars of Space Jam: Bugs Bunny Notes * Although Porky Pig, Sylvester and Tweety do not appear in this cartoon, their names are mentioned when the army officers refer each other by these names to Bugs (although Sylvester is mentioned as "Putty Tat" and Tweety is mentioned as "Tweetie Pie"). * Bugs is unusually characterized rather differently in this cartoon only compared to the other cartoons: here Bugs has been recast as a rather dumb and incompetent but well-meaning rabbit, as opposed to the more intelligent karmic trickster he is usually cast in his other cartoons. * This cartoon was reissued (but not given new titles) on May 24, 1969, two weeks before "Rabbit Stew and Rabbits Too!" was released.http://web.archive.org/web/20131224213337/http://www.davemackey.com/animation/wb/hkbh.html Gallery Bugs in Basic Training.png Stub.png External Links * "Forward March Hare" at SuperCartoons.net References Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons Category:Shorts Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:1953 Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones Category:Bugs Bunny Chuck Jones Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by John T. Smith Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer Category:Blue Ribbon reissues Category:Re-released cartoons whose original titles are known to exist